Everything originated from some culture and was borrowed by another- What is cultural appropriation?

Everything originated from some culture and was borrowed by another- Are cultural appropriation debates and triggers on social media harming our progress?

Culture can really never be owned or claimed. Often one culture borrows an element of another culture – for some that are a tragedy, some believe their culture being exploited, for others it’s offensive or merely a joke but that doesn’t stop it from being true.

It’s more noticeable when multiple cultures live within a diversity, cultural appropriation can include exploitation of another culture’s religious and cultural traditions, fashions, symbols, languages, and music or maybe it’s not so. It’s a controversial topic. For example: if a foreigner wore an Indian attire mingling with some foreign clothes, some Indians would praise it, welcoming with comments like “wow” or “our culture is spreading so fast” or “ they like our culture” and some would greet with “ you have copied that from our culture” or “you are exploiting and disrespecting our culture with your fancy thing”. The world is filled with people each having a different way and capability to accept and admit things; different people have different perspectives, some are positive, some are negative while others are both. We all need to accept varieties – for some ‘cultural appropriation’ means learning new things and for others, it’s stealing their pride and heritage and misusing them.

Why can’t people accept heterogeneity? Recently, Selena Gomez received a backlash for adopting bindi as an accessory. It’s just an accessory for wearing and it doesn’t symbolize Hindu culture, maybe it’s

indigenously originated from Hindu but that doesn’t mean it will be worn only by Hindu females. According to some legends, tea was developed in China, but does it mean it would be only available to the Chinese? Let them wear what they feel like, we all are free to do so – what we can do, is controlling our sentiments and being overprotective about our culture. We should always stand and protect our culture, but when necessary or when we feel our culture is being violated.

We often found people complaining about copying music. Sometimes, melody or the style is copied from one culture and by adding some effects or changes, completely a new song is made without giving any credits to the native song. According to my opinion, this should be considered as a ‘cultural appropriation’. Stealing someone else’s melody without their concern or giving credit, is something which should be raise voice against.

‘Cultural appropriation’ really depends and varies from person to person. Whatever may be the reasons and situation, we must judge them carefully before labeling them as ‘ cultural appropriation’.

Cultural appropriation debates and triggers on social media are maybe harming our progress. According to me, the Selena Gomez incident literally is a matter of wasting time and all are doing so for publicity and attention and thus, harming our progress with age-old conservative thinking but standing up for stealing of music is something we shouldn’t overlook. These debates also differ from cases to cases, some are delaying our progress while others are assisting to progress.